Analysis Of David Epstein's The Sports Gene

Many people believe that our future is decided by our innate talent and others believe that we carve it ourselves. David Epstein, author of The Sports Gene, states that innate ability leads to more success than practice. For Malcom Gladwell, author of Outliers: The Story of Success, it is the other way around. Through his strong and valid ratiocinate, Gladwell provides a superior, logical reasoning compared to Epstein when answering the question, How much of what happens in our lives do we control?

In the first place, Epstein makes an exceptional argument for the belief that innate talent is the reason for success. For example, someone with natural talent can be considered professional even with very little training. In August 2007, Donald Thomas went to compete in the high jumping world championships with only eight months of training (Epstein 6). Secondly, genetics are often the root of innate abilities. Majaki Ishikawa, a scientist at the Neuromuscular Research Center in Finland found that Thomas had long legs and a stiff, ten and a quarter inch Achilles tendon, allowing him to store more elastic energy and

naturally jump higher than most (Epstein 13). Finally, many "naturals" cannot improve their abilities past what they innately can do. Since Thomas has debuted on the top of the professional circuit, he has not improved at all in six years (Epstein 17). Because of the lack of evidence from other sources, Epstein does not provide enough support for his belief that our destiny is solely determined by genes.

One the other hand, Gladwell makes a powerful argument for the proposition that fate is a result of how much practice is done, not innate ability.

To begin, people who practice the most are often ahead of others who do not practice as much. Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson at the Academy of Music in Berlin saw that the best musicians were the ones who practiced for an extreme number of hours (Gladwell 3). Secondly, there is no correlation between innate talent and success. Ericsson found that no practice deprived "naturals" excelled (Gladwell 5). Lastly, it took many famous composers years to become a master. Psychologist Michael Howe says that Mozart wrote his best work after twenty years of practice (Gladwell 10). The weight and validity of Gladwell's points provide a compelling argument for the declaration that our destiny is fully in our

control.

Both texts offer well-crafted arguments about how humans succeed. Epstein states that innate talent alone can easily lead to great success. Just like Epstein, Gladwell believes that there is such a thing as innate talent. However, Gladwell shows more reliable ways to obtain high success, such as practice and preparation. After all things considered, Outliers: The Story of Success provides a superior argument when compared to The Sports Gene while answering the question, How much of what happens in our lives do we control?